Pioneering in clinical pediatric sleep medicine: an interesting journey

In 1978, as a young pediatrician, I became interested in the developing field of clinical sleep medicine and set out on a journey into uncharted waters, namely into the previously non-existent field of pediatric sleep medicine. I describe my early training (in a specialty where no formal training programs existed), my excellent mentors, my early struggles to work with equipment that was both primitive by today's standards and not designed to work with children and infants, and various other obstacles I initially faced. I also share some of early findings in pediatric insomnia, sleepiness, parasomnias, and rhythm disorders, and I outline some of our efforts to develop new treatment approaches and techniques where scientifically based ones previously did not exist. Finally, I try to describe translating what I was learning about children and their sleep problems into a wide-ranging book to help parents, especially those who were sleep-deprived themselves.